The Libertarian Thought Cloudhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com
A Blog where Libertarians can contribute their thoughts. Contact AlexMerced@AlexMerced.com to contribute.Thu, 15 Feb 2018 05:56:37 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngThe Libertarian Thought Cloudhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com
Christina Sandefur – Goldwater Institute The “Right To Try” Legislationhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/christina-sandefur-goldwater-institute-the-right-to-try-legislation/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/christina-sandefur-goldwater-institute-the-right-to-try-legislation/#respondSat, 04 Nov 2017 21:49:08 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/?p=46Christina Sandefur – Vice President of The Goldwater Institute joined The Coalition Talk Radio to discuss “Right To Try” Legislation. On the heels of the passage of Pennsylvania legislation allowing terminally ill patients access to experimental medical treatments (The 38th State In The Nation), Ms. Sandefur presents a compelling analysis of the ultimate human right … The power to control ones medical treatment, in the face of death

Arvin Vohra, in Providence RI for the Libertarian Party of Rhode Island 2017 Convention, conducts a class in “Libertarian Philosophy” Both articulate and accessible, Arvin addresses health care, borders, and free markets through the lens of an “Audacious Libertarian”

]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/arvin-vohra-joins-the-coalition-talk-radio/feed/0potaxpayerThe #MyLibertyStory campaignhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/the-mylibertystory-campaign/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/the-mylibertystory-campaign/#respondSat, 14 Nov 2015 02:16:16 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/the-mylibertystory-campaign/Hello,
Recently I listened to an interview of Adam Kokesh on the Tom Woods show. I honestly say the interview filled my head with many ideas but one of them is from a comment made that there isn’t enough stories of how people became libertarians. So what I have done is start the #MyLibertyStory campaign. A campaign where I’m encouraging all libertarian to post a video on YouTube talking about how they became a libertarian and how they developed their libertarian views (books, podcasts, etc.) and put #MyLibertyStory in the title of the video making these videos easy to find.
The hope is that is enough people tag these videos, link to their favorite blogs and books in the video description a few things will happen:
– we can better assess what brings people to liberty
– we can help litter YouTube with videos of libertarian talking about what it means to them (more so that we have already)
– get to know each other and make the growing movement feel more close knit.
So if you create a #MyLibertyStory video please post it on FB.com/MYLibertyStory
]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/the-mylibertystory-campaign/feed/0alexmercedThe Difference Between Public and Private Debthttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/the-difference-between-public-and-private-debt/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/the-difference-between-public-and-private-debt/#respondSun, 08 Nov 2015 02:06:31 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/?p=24

A Longer form response on this issue in summary

– All government debt is not used to pay for infrastructure, and often paying for things with no return

– Governance of Public institutions are more political with more fragmented interests that a private institution leading to worse usage of capital from debt

– Government unlike private institutions doesn’t pay back its debt once its investment matures but rolls it over so when rates do rise, it’s super problematic

– Makes it hard monetary policy authorities to raise rates when they need to forcing them to choose between a budget crisis and inflation

]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/free-markets-and-europe/feed/0alexmercedLibertarian 101https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/libertarian-101/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/libertarian-101/#respondFri, 04 Sep 2015 22:07:06 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/libertarian-101/So over the last few political seasons you’ve had a few questions about this term you’ve kept hearing people mention, “Libertarian”.
Essentially libertarians are those who look at all questions regarding government and policy from the perspective of the golden rule (do unto others as you’d have done unto yourself). Although, libertarian philosophy and tradition runs much deeper.
To understand what is a libertarian and the different categories of libertarianism watch this video:

Now below I’ll link to several videos to address different issues regarding libertarianism:

(Watch all the videos below, I’ll be surprised if you don’t find yourself thinking more libertarian when you done)
Healthcare

The Great Depression

Inequality

Central Banking

Taxation

Minimum Wage

]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/libertarian-101/feed/0alexmercedSimple Overview of the Great Depressionhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/simple-overview-of-the-great-depression/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/simple-overview-of-the-great-depression/#respondSun, 30 Aug 2015 19:34:11 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/simple-overview-of-the-great-depression/Recently I made a blog post where I shared several articles to help dispute characterization sod the free market in history. I figured I’d post a very simplified timeline of the Great Depression.

step 1 – Andrew Mellon who is the treasury secretary advocates tax and spending cuts under Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge freeing up capital the of colony begins growing
(keep in mind in 1920-1921 there was a deep recession but with very little government intervention the economy was rebounding a year later)​
step 2 – Fed Chairman Ben Strong in the mid 20’s begins to increase the money supply and cut interest rates creating an artificial increase in credit.
step 3 – companies which are already doing well issue stock then use the money to buy foreign bonds (lending money abroad so they can keep buying stuff from the U.S.) the return on these bonds make the companies look more profitable than they are and traders begin using the credit created by Fed chairman Ben Strong to speculate and the stock prices went up beyond the actual real profitability of these companies.
Step 4 – eventually in 1929 valuations hit their ceiling and prices begin to fall, this forces margin calls (people having to sell to pay their loans since their stocks are falling) which causes prices to fall even further. The market crashes
Step 5 – the economy finds it hard to recover as Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot Hawley tariff which taxes many foreign goods but many countries then do the same In retaliation, hurting trade further weakening the economy.
step 6 – US policy influenced by economist Irving Fisher (who failed to predict the crash and lost almost everything cause of it) focuses on policies to prevent the fall of asset prices (which were overvalued… Duh) slowing down the ability for economy to discover what the true value of these assets are so they can be sold and the economy can again move forward
Step 7 – Herbert Hoover raises taxes to 62% in 1932
Step 8​ – FDR becomes president raises taxes to the 90s and continues to fight asset price deflation dragging out the liquidation even further.
step 9 – While GDP and Umeployment improve during World War II (building tanks and drafting soldiers will do that) It’s not till post WWII tax and spending cuts does private investment and quality of life truly begin to improve

]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/simple-overview-of-the-great-depression/feed/0alexmercedDebunking Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump on Trade and Immigrationhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/debunking-bernie-sanders-and-donald-trump-on-trade-and-immigration/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/debunking-bernie-sanders-and-donald-trump-on-trade-and-immigration/#respondSun, 30 Aug 2015 14:13:38 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/debunking-bernie-sanders-and-donald-trump-on-trade-and-immigration/The Dark Horse candidates for the republican and democrat primaries (Donald Trump & Bernie Sanders respectively) have both expressed skepticism of Immigration and Trade in regard to U.S. Wages and Wealth. To me the ignorance that this exemplifies results in promoting a xenophobic sentiment with hostility towards globalization that I find well… offensive. So below I’ve collected many articles on the topic of Immigration and Trade the benefits they bring the U.S. Economy to settle this debate.
(For those who havn’t noticed Sanders tone on immigration, read this)
(For the record I support Rand Paul for the republican nomination and in the case he does not get the nomination I support Gary Johnson for the Libertarian Party nomination.)
IMMIGRATIONhttp://www.cato.org/blog/immigrations-real-impact-wages-employment

]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/debunking-bernie-sanders-and-donald-trump-on-trade-and-immigration/feed/0alexmercedhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/19/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/19/#respondSat, 29 Aug 2015 23:56:58 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/19/Below are links to many articles about some of the most contested issues when trying to defend the free market to people who are not free market declined. So the point of this post is to aggregate many of articles to help articulate the historical knowledge needed to promote free market policies.WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE STOCK MARKET CRASH IN 1929… WAS IT JUST SPECULATION AND GREED?

]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/19/feed/0alexmercedHow Stock Market Crashes Workhttps://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/how-stock-market-crashes-work/
https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/how-stock-market-crashes-work/#respondSat, 29 Aug 2015 15:11:11 +0000http://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/how-stock-market-crashes-work/By Alex Merced (alexmerced.com)
For those who wonder how stock market crashes hurt an economy, they really don’t (They are a Symbol of an already damaged economy) here’s a simplified look at it:
– economy is good, investments make money
– in order to make larger investments people borrow (margin) making their returns on the growing economy larger
– these positive returns motivate others to do the same seeking out their own similar investments, the competition to invest in the hot sector of the economy drives up prices which is fueled by the credit (sometimes this is exacerbated by monetary policy increasing available credit)
– this results in the value of these investments going up faster than the returns on the underlying enterprise, driving more people to invest chasing returns (more credit available makes this effect more dramatic)
– this drives capital away from other sectors of the economy since capital is chasing the returns in the hot sector
– this misallocation of capital (too much capital here not enough capital there) has effects in the real economy, once this becomes apparent investors then back off dropping the value of the hot investment
– people who leveraged too much are forced to sell to avoid a Margin call (bringing more money to keep their loan afloat)
– so many people sell for this reason the value drops forcing more people to sell to avoid more margin calls… Welcome to the crash. But the crash itself is result of the market finally realizing that the real economies returns don’t match the kinda valuations investors placed on the hot investment (but it affects all prices since people are selling everything to Avoid margin calls making many other investments super cheap and undervalued)
– now the after effect is losses scare financial institutions from lending and risk which will create a period of a liquidity crunch (people having a hard time being able to borrow money or find buyers for their investments, at least at the prices they believe they should get)
– all the investments that don’t have the underlying returns to match their market values have to be repriced affecting investors net worth… The liquidation begins
– once assets are repriced and realigned with the real economy, the economy can move forward again… (Banks feel comfortable lending, people willing to buy those before unsellable assets) Assuming this was allowed to happen (political pressure to protect people’s existing net worths often pushes politicians to prevent assets from being repriced and supporting their prices postponing the economy from recovering)
Point is stock prices are only symbol of intersection of investors perspective on investments and the real economy, not the driver of the economy itself.
]]>https://libertarianthoughtcloud.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/how-stock-market-crashes-work/feed/0alexmerced